


Squiggle of Love

by Kurogabae (PokeChan)



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, KuroMoko is REAL, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Other, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, implied KuroFai - Freeform, implied SyaoSaku
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 04:16:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17358779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PokeChan/pseuds/Kurogabae
Summary: "It's a squiggle oflove!" Mokona assures him.





	Squiggle of Love

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a headcanon post I made a long time ago that was also expanded upon by an old friend. [You can find the post here](http://kurogabae.tumblr.com/post/134481155037) if you want to read it/reblog it/save it.

It appears on his skin at the age of ten. 

The soulmark is strange. It’s shaped weird. It’s little more than a squiggle really. Youou doesn’t understand how it could be a name of any sort and the more he thinks about it the more confused he is. He begins to worry that maybe this means he doesn’t have a soulmate. Panicked, it takes him less than two days to crawl into his mother’s lap, full to the brim with worry and questions.

“Oh, darling,” she says sweetly as she pets his hair like she used to when he was very small, before he was old enough to hold a sword and train with his father. She concludes that the soulmark is a name from a different language. “This just means that your soulmate must live very far away.”

That is not comforting news. “How am I gonna meet them then?” he asks. He’s meant to be the next lord of Suwa. He can’t just run off into the world to find a single person. Especially if he has no idea where to start looking. He doesn’t know what language this name is in, and neither does his mother. He would have to travel just to learn where to look!

His mother only smiles, serene and comforting. “Perhaps they will travel to you,” she offers. “Or maybe, you’ve got a journey in your future.” She says this as if she knows something, which Youou figures she must. His mother knows many things. She’s wise and smart and powerful. He believes her when she promises that he’ll meet the one who has a squiggle for a name. 

“They’re going to be special,” she says, tapping the mark that he’s shown her. He can see her own, the kanji of his father’s name a proud, bold black on her palm. “Their name is right over your heart.”

–

Kurogane’s parents die. Suwa burns. He serves Tomoyo and does not think about the strange mark over his heart. He’s sent on a journey and it’s all so sudden and outlandish that he can’t even bring up hope that this might lead him to his soulmate, his mother’s words from so long ago do not resurface from the depths of his memory as he stands in the rain in the witch’s yard. He’s angry and hurt and, though he will not admit it to anyone, not even himself really, scared.

His mother knew many things, she was wise and smart and powerful. She’s gone now, and Kurogane’s journey is so absurd that the pieces do not connect until it is almost over.

They travel and Kurogane learns that soulmarks transcend worlds. All of his companions have one. Mostly. Syaoran’s name is gone from Sakura’s skin, part of his price. The mark is smeared, illegible and lost even as it remains, sitting low on her stomach, and Kurogane feels that it’s unfair to Sakura. Syaoran’s mark is at the small of his back, and though Kurogane cannot read it he knows it’s Sakura’s name. Fai’s is across the inside of his wrist, written in the strange letters that Kurogane has begun associating with Fai’s language. He doesn't know what the name is, doesn’t ask. It’s not Kurogane’s name, so it doesn’t matter. Mokona does not seem to have one.

They travel and Kurogane loves them all. They become his family, their names and faces sit close to his heart. They’re fun to be around, they all make him happy. Even the pranks and jokes Fai and Mokona pull on him are enjoyable and familiar now. It’s all a game. For what it’s worth he feels as if he’d fathered those children and he knows he will fight to his last breath to protect them. Fai is something new to him altogether. It’s love, yes, but not like the children. He keeps the feeling close and tries to piece it out. Whatever it is, it’s large and important, so he takes his time with it.

The world they’re in now is hot in the daylight, and freezes when the moon rises. There is a forest that is dense with mighty trees and the air is so dry Kurogane can feel his lips cracking with each breath. It’s not the worst place they’ve stayed and Syaoran and Sakura take to the burning air like ducklings to water. Fai refuses to leave the house they’ve taken up residence in and Kurogane doesn’t blame him. 

He’s getting ready to head outside to collect more firewood for tonight when he sees Sakura frowning at her smudged soulmark in a mirror and he couldn’t walk away and leave her like that if he wanted to.

“You shouldn’t worry about that too much, princess.” He knows she hopes it’ll come back along with her memories, but he knows that, just like her memories of Syaoran, it never will. 

She’s still frowning, but nods all the same. “I know. It’s just… how am I supposed to find my soulmate if I don’t even know their name? It’s sad, to think I might never find my true love or closest friend.”

Kurogane kneels down so he can look Sakura in the eyes. “I’m going to tell you what my mother told me,” he begins and he notes the surprise on her face. Kurogane does not talk about his life. “Soulmarks always match. Even if you lose yours, even if it never comes back for some reason, you just have to find the person that has your name.”

He pours the same conviction into his voice that his mother had had in hers, and it seems to help a little. Sakura smiles at him and thanks him. He doesn’t fight the smile that comes to his face and he gently musses her hair before standing. “Go see if the mage needs help getting food ready, the kid and I will be back soon.”

Sakura heads off, more bounce in her step than Kurogane’s seen in a while. Her memories weigh on her constantly, they all know this, but she puts on such a brave face most days it can be easy to overlook how she’s suffering. He wonders if there is a way they can ease her worries, but for the time being, there are more immediate things that need tending to. 

Kurogane meets Syaoran at the front door and they head out.

The heat is horrendous and the labor is repetitive and tedious. Kurogane chops the trees and logs into manageable pieces and Syaoran hauls what he can. Kurogane’s shirt has long since been discarded, demoted to a sweat rag for his face. Syaoran’s shirt remains on and Kurogane’s not surprised. He’s too worried about Sakura seeing her name for reasons Kurogane doesn’t quite understand. He’s young though, and young men don’t always make the wisest choices. He has no doubt that, with time, he’ll come around.

Once they make it back home, drained and covered in sweat and dust and grime, Kurogane shoos Syaoran inside to shower while Kurogane stacks the wood. Fai takes a daring handful of steps outside, hiding in the shade of the overhang as he watches Kurogane work and the want in his gaze is not at all hidden. “It’s sweet of you to let Syaoran-kun shower first.”

Kurogane shrugs and heaves another few logs onto the pile before he answers. “Last thing we need is him giving himself heatstroke. If he’d just take his shirt off to cool down it wouldn’t be such a problem.”

There’s a sigh and Fai tosses a wistful glance back at the house. “You’re right, but we both know how scared he is of Sakura-chan seeing her name. He thinks he’s lost her as a soulmate.” A shadows falls over Fai’s face at that. He’s not looking at Kurogane as he speaks, he’s not really looking at anything his eyes can see, and Kurogane catches his fingers tracing over the soulmark on his wrist. “It’s not something anyone should have to feel.”

“Speaking from experience?” The question is out before Kurogane can stop himself and it snaps Fai out of whatever thoughts he’d been having. A smile stretches thin over his face and Kurogane feels the urge to apologize.

“I would think such a thought would be common sense, Kuro-tan” Fai says.

There’s more to be said, but at that moment Mokona bounces out of a window to land in Fai’s hair. “Syaoran thinks it’ll rain tomorrow,” she reports. “And that we should head to the market then to look for the- Oh! Kurogane!”

She leaps from Fai to him and starts peppering him with fuzzy little kisses. He tries and fails to swat her away and Fai is watching the two of them with a mix of bafflement and amusement. “Oi manjuu! What are you doing!?”

“Showering Mokona’s soulmate with love!” she crowed.

Kurogane sees Fai’s jaw drop as Kurogane manages to catch Mokona. “What!?”

Mokona only wiggles happily in his hand, looking absolutely ecstatic. “Mokona’s name is on Kurogane’s chest, right there!”

“That’s…” he glances down at his chest. “That’s not a _soulmark_! That’s not even a name! It’s a squiggle!”

His heart is hammering though and something in him tells him what he hears is true. 

“It’s a squiggle of _love_!” Mokona exclaims while Fai starts laughing giddily before darting back into the house. Kurogane can hear him calling for the children. 

He lets Mokona perch on his head while he finishes with the firewood and quietly considers the warmth spreading slowly and comfortably through his whole body.


End file.
